The Stork
by Synchronized Harmony
Summary: The Five and Po investigate a supposed kidnapping.
1. The Stork

_Hello everyone! Because I cannot continue with my main story, "the return of Lord Shen" for a while, I am giving you this short story. Enjoy_.

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Chapter One

"PO! keep up!"

Tigress did not mean to sound so harsh, but she was tired, hot, and annoyed. She and the rest of the Five, (along with Po) were on the trail of a supposed kidnapper. It had all started a few weeks ago...

_"Master Tigress! Master Tigress!"_

_Tigress turned, and saw a female bunny, obviously in great distress, heading her way._

_"What is it, ma'am?_

_"You've got to help me!...M-my children..." The woman stopped to regain control over her emotions, and to catch her breath. _

_"One of my children are gone! I left him outside to play, and when I came back out, he wasn't there! I thought he had wondered off, but then I found this..."_

_The woman held up a small card, which Tigress took and read._

_"Child bearers, The most historically trusted child-removing service in China! We offer quality service to all our clientele, being a clean alternative to simple kidnapping. If you have questions about our service, just journey to here!"_

_A small map was drawn on the back of the card, indicating an area on Snow Pire, a large mountain just inside the valley. _

_Tigress had to wonder what kind of kidnapper left a map behind showing his whereabouts. She turned back to the rabbit._

_"Were any of your other children in the yard?"_

_The rabbit nodded._

_"Several of my children were out playing at the time... This just scares me! But only he was gone, he was my youngest child... All his brothers and sisters say that they didn't see anything..."_

_Tigress leaned down._

_"Don't worry. We'll get your child back. I just need to get permission from Master Shifu. Then we will head to your home, and interrogate the children."_

_"Oh thank you, thank you!" the rabbit exclaimed, "I don't know how I could ever repay you..."_

_"Don't worry about it." Tigress reassured, "Just wait here for us." She turned, and leaped up the stairs to the jade palace._

_Shifu had given her and the rest of the five permission to investigate further. Po had begged and pleaded to be let along, and finally Shifu had given in. They had hurried back to the woman, still standing exactly where Tigress had left her. They had journeyed the short distance to her house, and proceeded to question the children. This was harder than they had thought, as the children were struck dumb by the, (as Po called it) Wow-the-famously-furious-five-are-talking-to-me disease._

_"Where were you when the kidnapping occurred, about two hours ago?"_

_No answer, the child just sat dumbly._

_Each child was the same, except for one. The second youngest proved the most talkative._

_"I was outside."_

_Good! Tigress thought, now we can get somewhere. _

_"Did you see-..." Tigress was interrupted by the little rabbit._

_"And I'm glad he's gone! He got all the attention, and I got nuffin'! He stole my place!" The little rabbit was nearly in tears. "He scribbled on all my coloring books and ate ma' crayons! He deserved to be kidnapped!"_

_The rabbit burst into tears. "It wasn't my fault!"_

_"Of course it's not your fault." Tigress said, smoothing the child's fur, "you didn't do it. It wasn't your fault."_

_"Yes it was!" the rabbit sniffed. "I stole the money and paid the man!"_

_"Wh-what happened?!" Tigress suddenly grew a little harsher. "What man?"_

_The rabbit burst into tears again. "The man which took my lil' brother! I found him...and I told him to take my brother, and I paid him to do it...and now I feel awful!"_

_Tigress nodded. She understood. The child had become jealous of her little brother, and had somehow found out about this "Buisness" and had contacted an agent of the "business" to remove her little brother, stealing her parents money to pay the agent. Tigress sighed._

_"You paid someone to take your little brother?" she asked._

_"Uh huh..." the little rabbit sniffed. Her mother looked on in horror._

_Tigress decided to press the child a little. She needed the information._

_"Where did you meet this man?"_

_"I called him by messenger, and he came here..." The child sniffed miserably._

After asking a few more questions, the Furious Five (and Po) took their leave, promising to return soon with the missing child. They were following the instructions on the card, and that was how they ended up on this hot, sweaty mountain. For something called "Snow Pire" it wasn't snowy at all.

They hiked up the mountain for a few more hours, before stopping to take a rest. Or, to be more presise, to give Po a rest. He just couldn't keep hiking like the rest of them could. He sure could still _talk,_ however.

"Crane?" Po asked.

"Yes?" Crane answered.

"Since you deliver babies, shouldn't you like, already know where they all are?"

Crane stiffened. "Er... Well..." he stammered, searching for words, "Traditionally, it is the stork, not the crane which delivers children..."

"Oh..." Po sighed. "So you don't help? What if they get understaffed, then would you deliver some to help out?"

Po snickered to himself evilly. He knew full well where babies came from, but he also knew that the Furious Five somewhat doubted his intelligence...

"Ehhhh... Note I said traditionally. In reality, neither storks nor cranes deliver children." Crane blurted. Oh, please don't let him ask...

"Yeah they do!" Po exclaimed. "If storks don't, where do they come from?" Heh. That should put him on the spots...

So much for that hope... Crane stalled. "Well..., storks don't deliver children, but-..."

Crane was interrupted by a whooshing sound above him. All eyes tuned to the sky, as a large white bird flew overhead. A stork! And... No way! In its beak, the stork carried a bundle...from which a distinctive baby-cry issued forth.

"See!" Po said excitedly, "I told you that storks deliver babies!"

"I dont believe it..." Crane gawked.

They all watched the stork fly a few miles, then land in a cleverly concealed cave. It dissapeard from view.

"What do you make of that?" Mantis asked.

"Hey guys..." Tigress said, "It's just possible we may have found our kidnapper."


	2. The Stork pt2

_Hey, to all readers. If you do not review, I will make the stork do the tango with you. You don't want to see that!_

_Really though, thanks for reading. I'm a terrible writer, I know._

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Chapter two

The Five (and Po) stealthly hiked up the mountain, closer to the cave. They didn't really know what they would do, but they would never know until they tried.

Finally, they reached the cave. Pressing themselves against either sides of its entrance, they listened.

Tigress, with her sharp hearing, could hear the best, but even so, she could only make out snatches of dialog.

"Hey! Come back... It's not so... What?..."

"I want my Mommy! Give me my Mommy back!"

"OW! No need to bite... Your mother...didn't want you!"

"Yes she did!"

"...why did...sell...me?"

Tigress had heard enough. She burst into the cave, straight at the stork...

The others waited to hear a crunch of bones breaking, agonized squawking, at least a yell. But they heard nothing.

"'ello! What can I do for ya?"

"You 'aving a spell or something?"

The rest of the Five (and Po) burst in. What had happened to Tigress?

Tigress just stood there, staring at the stork.

She had been leaping at the stork when the stork stepped back, wings spread, revealing the shiny silver badge on its chest. Tigress, being a feline, was naturally attracted to shiny things...her eye had only lingered on the badge for a second, but it was enough...

The badge seemed to shake before her eyes, until it filled her entire vision. The sound of flapping wings and rushing winds filled her ears, and suddenly a scene exploded into her vision.

_Snowflakes fall thickly everywhere. Tigress looks down, and sees the ground getting farther and farther away. She can see two figures, one slightly taller than the other, staring at her._

_"I'm sorry! It was the only way!" a feminine voice called._

_"We love you! Remember that we always loved you!" _

_Tigress could see chubby paws reaching out in front of her. "Mama! Baba!" she heard._

_The figures fade out, farther and farther away, until they could not be seen at all._

_Flapping._

_A shiny silver badge._

The vision faded away, leaving Tigress stunned, staring listlessly at the stork. What was that? She snapped out of it.

"What do you want?" she heard the stork say.

"Are you a ruthless child kidnapper?" Po's voice.

"Wha-no! I am a liberator of the oppressed, a savior of the..." The stork droned on and on.

"Oh." Po said. "I think we were wrong, he says he's not a kidnapper."

"Oh yeah?" Monkey said, "Then who's that!?" he gestured toward a small rabbit huddling in a corner.

"Hey...yeah!" Po shouted, "That's the kidnapped child! You are the kidnapper!"

"No I'm not!" The stork exclaimed. "I take children from parents that can't afford to keep them, or just tire of keeping them. A noble cause, I might say!"

"Y-you were there..." Tigress spoke for the first time, her voice weak and quavery. "You were there...before the orphanage...before everything...you were there!"

The stork gasped at her, and laughed. "So you'r one of my children eh?" he thought awhile. "Let me see... Let me-..."

The stork was interrupted by the little rabbit-child kicking him in the ankles, and leaping off down the mountain. The seven animals all gasped, and leaped off after him.

"Hey! Come back!" Po yelled, "We're here to save you!"

The rabbit ran in blind panic, as fast as a... Well, a jackrabbit. He suddenly skidded to a halt, right on the edge of a steep cliff.

"Don't move!" Tigress yelled. "Stay calm! We will get you!"

The rabbit seemed to have froze. Tigress was getting closer and closer, and her fingertips were almost touching the rabbit's clothes, when suddenly a gust of wind stormed down the mountain, hitting the little rodent and hurtling it off the rim of the cliff.

"No!" Tigress exclaimed, then turned to Crane. "Crane! Spear of speed, NOW!"

Crane hurtled into the air over Tigress's head, as Viper leaped off the cliff. Crane grabbed her and threw her like a spear, straight towards the falling rabbit.

Viper whistled through the air, catching up with the rabbit in mere seconds, wrapping herself around it. She frantically searched the cliff-face. There! Extending her tail, she wrapped it around a branch jutting from the cliff-face, stopping her fall. She hung there for dear life, waiting until she heard the familiar rushing of wide wings. She felt a talon extricate the young rabbit from her coils... Then she looked up.

It wasn't Crane! It was the stork!

She gasped in anger as the stork flew away, leaving a jetstream behind it. Tigress saw this too.

"Crane! After him!"

Crane was already on his way, hurtling into the skies after the fleeing bird. The stork had a good head start, but Crane was a seasoned Master, who had been honing his flight skills most of his life. He was slowly but surely overhauling the larger waterfowl.

"Keep away from me!" The stork shouted. "Stupid cranes, always trying to steal my business!"

"I'm not trying to steal your business!" Crane shouted back, "I just want..." he was nearly there, "That child! It was a mistake..." nearly there, "You weren't supposed to take this one! It's mother still-..!."

Crane was cut short, as the stork kicked him in the beak. Crane lunged and the stork, and both birds hurtled towards the ground.

Crane wrested the rabbit from the stork's grip, and tossed him into the air, as they impacted the ground, Crane able to break his fall using his Kung fu training. He disentangled himself, and caught the falling rabbit in his hat. He was about to soar off into the air, when the stork kicked him again, hard. He dropped to his knees, gasping for breath.

"That oughta teach ya to steal from me!" the stork remarked.

Crane watched, helpless, as the stork prepared to fly away. They would never see him again. He would fly off, drop the child at some orphanage, and be gone. The Furious Five would have to break their promise to the child's mother, and-...

"YYYYAAAHHHHH!" Po burst from the bushes, barreling into the stork. The stork let out a squawk of surprise at suddenly finding himself underneath an extremely heavy panda.

Tigress ran up, and picked up the VERY frightened child. "It's ok..." she stroked the little rabbit, "We're here now. Your going to be alright." She turned to the stork. "You...I'm not sure what we are going to do with you..." she suddenly rushed in closer, pushing against its face. "But tell me. What. Do. You. Know. About. Me?"

The stork gasped.

He told her her story.

He had simply taken her from her parents. They had been unable to take care of her, and thinking of her welfare, had given her to the stork to give to an orphanage. He had just been the carrier. He didn't know anymore than that.

Tigress sighed. She didn't know what to think. She was glad that her parents had been thinking of what was best for her, but this whole experience had opened up a whole new range of feelings for her. She had never before thought about what had happened before the orphanage...

* * *

She thought about these feelings as she sat in her bed that night. The stork had been put in jail, but probably wouldn't stay there very long. The child had been given back to his parents, and they had earned a new, very devoted, fan.

She thought about telling her feelings to Shifu. He was her foster-father, after all... No. He wouldn't understand. Tigress turned over in bed, full of her own thoughts.

* * *

_High up, on the cliff face, a green snake is wrapped around a branch. She hisses, then speaks._

_"Hey! Guys! Don't forget about me! GUYS!"_

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_Authors note: I may tie this in with a longer story sometime in the future. Until then, goodbye!_


End file.
